'Yeah. Since we were uglies. Same birthday.'
'That's wonderful. Old friends are best at times like these. What was the fight about?'
Tally shrugged. 'I don't know. Nothing, really.'
'Can you remember at all?'
Tally wondered if this room was rigged to polygraph her, and if so, how big a lie she could get away with. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the calories moving through her half-starved body, letting a pretty haze settle over herself.
'Tally?' he prompted.
She decided to give Dr. Anders a little bit of the truth. 'It was just…old stuff.'
He nodded, folding his hands in satisfaction. Tally wondered if she'd said too much. 'From ugly days?' he asked.
She shook her head, not trusting her voice.
'How have you and Shay been getting along since that night?'
'Just fine.'
He smiled happily, but Tally caught him glancing away into the middle distance — probably at an eyescreen that was invisible to her. Was he checking the city interface? It would know that she and Shay hadn't pinged each other since the party and three whole days without any mail between them was pretty unusual. Or was Dr. Anders looking to see if her voice was wavering?
He gave his invisible data, or whatever it was, a small nod. 'Has she seemed in better spirits to you since then?'
'She's okay, I guess.' Just a little self-mutilation, crazy chanting, and maybe wanting to start her own very disturbing clique. 'I haven't seen her since this bogus rain started coming down, actually. But me and her are best friends forever.'
The last words came out wrong, Tally's voice sounding rough. She coughed a little, which was marked by a deepening of Dr. Anders's concerned smile. 'I'm glad to hear that, Tally. And you're feeling all right as well, aren't you?'
'Bubbly,' she said. 'A little hungry, though.'
'Yes, yes. You and Zane really must eat more. You're looking a bit thin, and I'm told his blood sugar was terribly low when he came in.'
'I'll make sure he has some of those chocolate-chip cookies in the waiting room. They're awesome.'
'A wonderful idea. You're a good friend, Tally.' He stood, offering his hand. 'Well, I see that Zane's all patched up, so I won't keep you. Thanks for your time, and make sure you let me know if you or any of your friends ever need to talk.'
'Oh, I will,' she said, giving the doctor her prettiest smile. 'This has really been great.'
Outside, the cold rain embraced Tally like an old and unavoidable friend, the discomfort almost a relief after Dr. Anders's radiant smiles. She told Zane about him on the way home. Although her cuff was bound up again, she spoke softly enough for the wind to tear her words away as they climbed into the gray sky.
He sighed when she was done. 'Sounds like they're as worried about her as we are.'
'Yeah. They must have heard our fight the other night. She was screaming at me in a very unpretty way.'
'Perfect.' His teeth were bared against the cold. It didn't look like the painkillers they'd given him for his hand were helping Zane's headache much. His feet shuffled on the board, finding their balance clumsily.
'I didn't say anything much. Just that she was drunk and acting up.' Tally allowed herself a thin smile of self-congratulation. This one time, at least, she hadn't betrayed Shay. She hoped.
'Of course you didn't, Tally. Shay might need help, but not from some middle-pretty headshrink. What we have to do is get her out into the wild and give her the real cure. As soon as possible.'
'Yeah. The pills are a lot better than cutting yourself.' If they don't wind up giving you brain damage, she didn't add. Tally had decided not to tell Zane about her resolve to take him to the hospital the next time he had an attack; hopefully it wouldn't come to that. 'So how were your doctors?'
'The usual. They spent the first hour lecturing me about eating more. When they finally got around to knitting my bones up, I was only unconscious about ten minutes. But other than being skinny, they didn't seem to notice anything weird about me.'
'Good.'
'Of course, that doesn't mean I'm fine. They didn't look at my head, after all, just my hand.'
Tally took a deep breath. 'Your headaches are getting worse, aren't they?'
'I think it was more hunger and cold than anything else.'
She shook her head. 'I haven't eaten anything today either, Zane, and you didn't see me—' 'Forget about my head, Tally! I'm not any worse or any better. It's Shay's arms I'm worried about.' He angled his board closer and lowered his voice. 'They're going to be keeping an eye on her, too, now. If your Dr. Remmy gets a good look at what she's been doing to herself, all hell will break loose.'
'Yeah. I can't argue with that.' Tally visualized the row of scars along Shay's arms. From a distance, she'd thought they were tattoos, but from close up, anyone would know what they were. If Dr. Anders saw them, Tally doubted very much that he would have a smile appropriate to the occasion. Alarms would go off all over the city, and the wardens' interest in everyone who'd been involved in the stadium disaster would go way off the scale.
Tally reached out and brought them to a stop, lowering her voice to just above a whisper. 'We don't have much time, then. He could decide to talk to Shay any day now.'
Zane took a deep breath. 'You'll have to talk to Shay first. Tell her to lay off the cutting.'
'Oh. Fun. What if she doesn't want to?'
'Tell her we're about to leave. Tell her well get her the real cure.'
'Leave? How?'
'We just go — tonight, if we can. I'll pack up everything we need, you get the other Crims ready.'
'What about these?' She was too exhausted to raise her swaddled wrist, but he took her meaning.
'We'll get them off. Tonight. There's a trick I've been saving.'
'What trick, Zane?'
'I can't tell you yet. It'll work, though — it's just a little risky' Tally frowned. She and Zane had tried every tool they could think of, and nothing had so much as scratched the cuffs. 'What is it?'
'I'll show you tonight,' he said, his jaw tight.
Tally swallowed. 'Must be more than a little risky.' Zane stared at her, his face pale and half-starved, his eyes dull through the goggles. 'Give the girl a hand.' He chuckled. 'Might need one.'
Tally had to turn her eyes away from his smile.
The shop shed wasn't far from the hospital, on the downstream end of New Pretty Town where the two arms of the river rejoined each other. This late at night, the lathes, imaging tables, and injection molds sat unused, the place almost empty. The only light came from the other end of the shed, where a middle pretty was blowing molten glass into shape.
'It's freezing in here,' Tally said. She could see the words coiling from her mouth in the soft red glow of work lights. The rain had finally stopped while they were getting the Crims ready to run, but the air was still damp and chill. Even inside the shed, Tally, Fausto, and Zane were huddled in their winter coats.
'They've usually got smelting furnaces going,' Zane said. 'And some of these machines put out a ton of heat.' He pointed at the two sides of the shed that were open to the night. 'But the ventilation means no smart walls, see?'
'I see.' Tally pulled her coat tighter around her, reaching into one pocket to turn up its heater.
Fausto pointed out a machine that looked like a huge press. 'Hey, I remember playing with one of those back in ugly school, for industrial design class,' Fausto said. 'We made these lunch trays with runners on the bottom, for sliding on the snow.'
'That's why I brought you along,' Zane said, leading Tally and Fausto across the concrete floor.
The bottom part of the machine was a metal table, which seemed to be etched with a million tiny dots. Parallel with the table was suspended an identical expanse of metal.
